A week to myself

Back in October I got the rare chance of a week to myself.  Hubby still had another week off work and basically told me to 'bugger off' and have some time to myself.

I wanted to go on a driving holiday but I didn't want to spend my whole time on the road so I decided to explore the Scenic Rim in southern Queensland.

The first day I headed towards Mt Tamborine which is not quite 2 hours from home.

I checked out Cedar Falls on the way then spent a lovely afternoon driving around the area and browsing the main touristy Gallery Walk area.

For some reason I hadn't expected to be spending the night at Mt Tamborine.  It took me until about 2pm to realise that I was enjoying myself, I wanted to explore the area more and  to do that I would need to find accommodation.  

I did and it was so lovely.  I stayed at the Bungunyah Manor Resort which had an old world charm.  Lacking a few modern conveniences like wi-fi etc (I think anyway), it was the perfect place for me to spend my first night.

The next day I passed through Beaudesert and headed towards Rathdowney to check out a couple of camp grounds.  I then explored the area towards Boonah and somehow kept driving and ended up in Warwick for the night.

The next morning I topped up some supplies in Warwick before heading toward Killarney and the Falls Scenic drive.

There's a lovely drive near Killarney which takes you past many waterfalls.  Some you can walk up to like Browns Falls.  That was my favourite but there's plenty of scrambling over rocks and trees to get there.  It was certainly worth the effort.

Other falls you could view from a lookout beside the road.

At Queen Mary's Falls I couldn't help but get excited about this piece of yarn bombing outside the cafe.  It was fabulous!

I'd love to bring the kids back here to explore the area and we could walk to the bottom of the falls.  I wasn't comfortable with heading down there on my own so just walked to the first lookout instead.

From there I headed further east and ended up having to take a detour because part of the road was damaged in the floods of a year or so ago.

It was a great adventure as the detour took me on a dirt road through national park, farms, creek and more farms.  I had no idea where I was and after about an hour I was wondering if I'd ever see a town again let along bitumen.  (I was also wishing I'd brought the 4x4 instead of the XR6 Falcon).

It was really pretty though so I thoroughly enjoyed being lost.

Every now and then another dirt road would join up to the one I was on and there'd be a small incongruous looking road sign in the middle of nowhere saying Boonah so I knew I was on the right track.  I realised afterwards that I'd been driving in NSW for most of the detour as well.  I hadn't expected to be so close to the border!

Once back on a main road I headed towards Rathdowney and one of the camp grounds I had checked out the day before.  I set up camp and spent 2 nights really relaxing at Bigriggen Campground which is 100 acres of family friendly camping.  I read a book, did some crochet, got the campfire cranked up...

...and explored the camp ground and the nearby swimming hole at the creek.  The water was way too cold for me to go for a dip but that didn't deter many of the other campers later in the day.

It was a really lovely spot to camp for a couple of days and I was glad I took the plunge and decided to go camping by myself.

My last few days I headed from Rathdowney, over the border and through Woodenbong and made my way  back into Queensland to the town of  Stanthorpe. For those that don't know, Stanthorpe is well known for it's wineries and also for being one of the coldest towns in Queensland.  I LOVED IT, especially as there was a frost one morning.  FROST IN OCTOBER!!!

 I checked into a nice little motel for a couple of nights and explored the area.  Fantastic wineries, wonderful cafes and lots of little boutique shops were visited and it topped off my week away nicely.

I came home feeling so relaxed and recharged which is what I had hoped for.

I'll also add that hubby did a fantastic job with the kids considering he'd never had even one of them for a 24 hour period on his own.  He handled dinner, school lunches and everything else easily.  (Or so he told me!)

xx Susan